Friends

I miss my friends! I have the greatest group of girlfriends back in Seattle and I really miss hanging out with them. We were able to experience a lot of life's challenges together and also a lot of life's joys. It was always a great time when we got together to celebrate someones birthday or just to have a girls night out. The most difficult part of making the decision to move back to Utah was that I knew I would miss them terribly. They are all so talented in many different ways and I was able to learn new things from each of them. Thank goodness for good girlfriends! I love ya! We really need to plan our first annual weekend get together trip soon, ok.

A rough couple of weeks

It has been a rough couple of weeks here at the Colasurdo house. Bella and I have both been sick. Bella first came down with a cold and then got a touch of the stomach flu. I had a touch of the stomach flu and now I feel the cold coming on. Ayva has had a bit of a runny nose. Amazingly Peter has been able to avoid catching any of it despite getting up in the middle of the night to clean up Bella's throw up. Tough guy!!!
We have also had a rough time with Bella and her teeth. Upon a recent visit to the dentist we found out that she has 6 cavities. This news was definitely more traumatic for me to hear than it was for her. The pediatric dentist that I had taken her to wanted to sedate her to do the work and I wasn't comfortable with that so I took her to a general dentist who felt that he could do it without sedation. We broke up the work into two visits, the first one being last week. I had Peter stay home from work and take her because I was so nervous about my decision to have her get her teeth filled without sedation that I couldn't be present if it didn't work and they caused her any pain. (I sound a little selfish here, I know) So she did great, everything went fine. They filled 3 of the 6 cavities without even having to give her nitrous oxide. So today I took her back in to get the other 3 filled and it was a completely different story. The water and sucker tools bothered her right off the bat so the dentist gave her the laughing gas and numbed up her teeth. But it didn't matter, she was too freaked out by that point and wouldn't sit still for them to do the work. The assistant asked me to help hold her still and keep her calm but as soon as Bella started crying, I started crying and had them stop. So now I have to take her back to a pediatric dentist who can sedate her and fix the other 3 teeth. Ugh!
We have had some happy things happen in the last couple of weeks as well. My new nephew, Wyatt Dean was born. He is my brother's 4th child and he is totally adorable. You can see his cute mug if you click on the Hallstrom Happenings link on my blog. Ayva has picked up a half dozen or so new words and has also learned how to sign "thank you" in sign language. And we painted our ugly ketchup and mustard colored bathroom a nice soft yellow and put in a new light fixture. (I will wait to post a picture until we finish all the updates)

Ayva has a fit

So I have been a mom now for over 3 years and in that time I have never experienced the public humiliation that Ayva put me through today. I have seen it happen to other parents and heard friends talk about their children doing it but somehow I was always able to avoid it. But today I lived it and am really surprised that we both lived through it.
We were waiting in the check out lane at the grocery store. Ayva was sitting in the front seat of the cart and reached over and grabbed a package of crackers of the shelf. I didn't want to buy them or have her crush them and then put them back so I took them out of her hand and put them away. This caused Ayva to go into a screaming crying fit that lasted what seemed like 20 minutes atleast. Nothing I did to try and console her worked, she just screamed and screamed and screamed. I looked up from the madness to see that everyone in the store was staring at me waiting for me to do some magic mother trick and get her to shut up but I didn't know what to do except just smile and pretend like it wasn't bothering me. After a few minutes I took her out of the cart to hold her thinking that maybe that would help. As soon as I lifted her out into my arms she smacked me across the face. Ahhhhhh! So I put her down and she continued to scream the whole time we checked out, walked out of the store and got into the car. Then on the way home she fell asleep and left me to wallow in my humble pie. Kids?!

Callings

Since moving into our new ward a few months ago, both Peter and I have been anxiously waiting for new callings. It's not that we are super excited to start having more responsibility we are just nervous about how much responsibilty we would be getting. So my calling came first and it came in the form of Mia Maid advisor. Yup, can you believe it. Four years serving in the young womens in my last ward wasn't enough. I was a little surprised by it. I had convinced myself that I was going to be called to the nursery where I know they need more workers. But I have now had a few weeks to get use to the idea and have decided that I am really looking forward to, hopefully, influencing the young women to do good. (and to always be available to babysit) Then this last week Peter's calling came. Elder's quorum teacher. I know he is a little nervous about teaching but I know he will do a great job.
Now in Seattle we were spoiled at church because our meeting time was 9:30 am -12:30pm and it never changed. But here in Utah where there are 4 wards meeting in our building we have to rotate times. This year our ward has the 1:00pm - 4:00pm time slot. This time is torture for people with small children but may we all press on. However, Bella is now a Sunbeam and Ayva is now in nursery so the time change hasn't been to bad on us, but as for the primary and nursery leaders, that's another story.

Sing in the New Year

Ah, New Years Eve...this use to be one of my favorite holidays back when I was young and wild, but now that I am thirty something and a bit of a "molly" I feel like I could take it or leave it. In fact, the past couple of years I haven't even been able to stay awake until midnight. This year was no different. We did, however, attend a fun New Years eve eve party this year that a fun couple in our ward invited us to. It was nice to be able to get to know some of the people in our ward outside of the church setting. The best part of the evening was playing Karaoke Revolution on the X box. I had little trouble getting up and humiliating myself and was happy to do so in the name of fun. Amazingly though, I was able to persuade Peter to get up and have a go at it and found out that the boy can sing. He sang "Every Breath You Take" by Sting and nailed it. He's so hot! (I am talking about Peter and not Sting, although Sting is a good looking too) I didn't have my camera with me but a friend let me borrow hers and I was able to get proof that Peter can still cut loose and have a little fun.

Ahhh, Merry Christmas...

I hope everyone had a happy holiday this year. Ours was good. Like every Christmas I ate too much and worked out to little but that is why a week later I resolved to eat better and work out more often. The girls were thrilled to find out that despite their terrible behavior during the year, Santa came to our house anyway. Among other things, Bella got a couple of Barbie dolls and Ayva got a rockin' elephant. (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Hallstrom) Peter got a new snowboard, boots and bindings and I got an ink refill for the printer. (I guess Santa was watching the times that I was bad.)

Part of our Christmas tradition is to get the girls picture taken with Santa. In Seattle we liked the Santa at Alderwood Mall because he had the real beard, was old enough to play the part and wore goofy Christmas shirts with red pants and suspenders instead of the red suit. So we were so happy to find a very similar Santa at Southtown mall here in Utah. Ayva on the other hand wasn't so thrilled.

After we saw Santa we took the girls over to a carousel that was also in the mall. Ayva's "bah humbug" attitude continued there as well.
Isabella is practicing to be on a float someday. No matter what chaos is going on around her at the time, if she is getting her picture taken she remains focused and poised. That's my girl!

I am in total shock in this picture because as Bella opened this book she read the title of it perfectly. I thought it was a Christmas miracle. "She can read" I screamed to Peter. I don't know how she did it. Unfortunately it turns out it was just some kind of fluke. She couldn't read anything else I tested her with the rest of the day.

And here's Ayva on her rockin' elephant. Isn't she cute! She finally got happy about Christmas and decided to have some fun.